The Highway Forums General Discussion Theology Discussion Forum A study of the Heidelberg Catechism

1. Because of the fact that we all live in a world that is corrupted and that we are all born with a corruption of nature, life is fraught with all manner of woes, ills, tragedy, sorrow, suffering and death. Thus comfort is that balm which consoles the soul and affords hope of relief and better things to come.

2. The reason and ground of that comfort is not to be found within oneself nor from the things or others of this world, for all these things have been subjected to God's wrath due to the Fall. The comfort man needs and which the believer only can own comes from without; the Lord Jesus Christ.

3. And, the Catechism is very precise in stating that the comfort that is found only in Jesus Christ is because " am not my own but belong unto my faithful Saviour Jesus Christ." It does not say that Jesus Christ belongs to me, i.e., the Lord Christ was made mine because I did such and such, e.g., exercising my own will to allow Him to be my Savior, or went forward at some crusade or revival meeting, or read a little prayer on the back of a card, or decided to become a Christian for whatever reason, etc., etc. NO, the comfort owned by a true Christian is because the Lord Christ owns him/her. Believers have been bought with a price. They have been redeemed by the precious blood of Christ. They have been reconciled to God through His own sacrifice. They are no longer under the just wrath of God and subject to condemnation but rather, they have been justified and adopted as beloved children of God. It was Christ's Spirit Who worked in them, regenerating their spiritually dead souls giving them a heart of flesh that was smitten with guilt due their sinfulness and wanted to be cured and cleansed of their filth. It was by the Spirit that the Lord Christ became altogether lovely and the one and only hope to be reconciled to God. Believers were "made willing" by the power of God (Ps 110:3).

4. Everything imaginable and even that which is unimaginable which is for our good, both for this life and eternity, is not only promised but given without measure in God's perfect time from the day we were drawn by the Spirit, made alive through the Word, and united to Christ through repentance of sins and faith in Christ Jesus our LORD. NOTHING can separate us from the love of God in life or death, for ALL THINGS work together for good to those who love God and who are the called according to HIS purpose.

What possibily could be more comforting to know than from all eternity, the sovereign God had set His love upon us to be recipients of His mercy and grace in Christ Jesus and to give us a place in His kingdom... both now on this earth and on the new earth which is to come.